A Manhattan court stenographer with a drinking problem jeopardized the outcome of more than 30 verdicts by repeatedly typing 'I hate my job, I hate my job,' instead of the actual trial dialogue.
Officials are rushing to repair the damage caused by Daniel Kochanski, 43, with 10 cases going through the appeals process potentially able to claim that crucial evidence is missing in their conviction.
Alcoholic Kochanski's transcripts were an utter mess according to court sources familiar with his case saying, 'It should have been questions and answers - instead it was gibberish'.
The New York Post compared Kochanski's antics to the meltdown of Jack Nicholson's unhinged character in 1980s The Shining, who writes 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,' again and again.
Kochanski, who was fired in March 2012 for misconduct hit either random keys during court proceedings or 'I hate my job'.
The most high profile of Kochanski's botched transcripts is the 2010 mortgage-fraud trial of Aaron Hand - who was also convicted of trying to hire a hit man to take-out a witness who would testify against him.
Claudia Trupp, of the Center for Appellate Litigation, said her office was handling the appeals in Hand’s and nine other cases.
'I never had a situation where a single court reporter was responsible for so much damage,' she said.
At the time of his sacking, Kochanski was summoned to the Manhattan's DA Office and arrested and forced to make sense of his shorthand mess.
Even that failed, and at the courts expense and time, judges have been holding 'reconstruction hearings' in which everyone in the case has to testify what they remember.
Legal piss up.
Legal piss up.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”